Handy Promo: Dynamically Linking to After Effects in Premiere Pro

Topics covered in this Premiere Pro tutorial:

Dynamically Linking to After Effects, The Drop Shadow Effect, Pasting Attributes, Creating an H.264 Export Preset

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, we’ll finish off the Handy promo by adding text, and bringing in animations from Adobe After Effects.

After Effects is an app that specializes in motion graphics and animation. Whenever more complex animations are required than are easily achieved in Premiere Pro, After Effects can be used together with Premiere Pro via something called Dynamic Linking. This allows the two apps to be able to “bounce” clips back and forth between each other.

Re-Previewing the Final Video

1. On the Desktop, navigate to Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video > Finished Movie and double–click Handy-Promo.mp4.

2. Play the video, noticing what we haven’t done yet (watch it as often as needed):

   • The Handy logo rotates at both the beginning and end of the video.
   • The text on screen accompanies the voice-over script.
   • The text fades in line by line.
   • The first and last frame look exactly the same so that the video can loop perfectly.

3. You should still have yourname-Handy-GFX open in Premiere Pro. If you closed it, re-open it now by going to File > Open Project then Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video. We recommend you finish the previous exercises (3A–3B) before starting this one. If you haven’t finished it, do the following sidebar.

   If You Did Not Do the Previous Exercises (3A–3B)

   1. If a project is open in Premiere Pro, go to File > Save, then File > Close Project.
   2. Go to File > Open Project and navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video > Finished Projects.
   3. Double–click on Handy Promo-Ready for After Effects.prproj.
   4. Go to File > Save As. Name the file yourname-Handy-GFX and save it into Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video.

Adding Text

One of the last items that’s missing from our video is the on screen text.

1. Switch to the Desktop and navigate to Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video.
2. Double–click on textOnscreen.rtf to see the text we’ll be using in our video.
3. Select the first 3 lines.
4. Copy them.
5. Switch back to Premiere.
6. Move the playhead to 2;08.
7. Choose the Type tool .
8. Click anywhere in the Program Monitor and go to Edit > Paste.
9. If the text is on V4, drag it down to V2.
10. Extend the clip so that it lasts as long as the 3 image clips below.
11. Move the playhead to around 2;19 so we can see the text we’re working with over the first “house cleaning” clip.
12. If there are any empty lines below the text, delete them so the text frame is the height of the 3 lines of text.
13. Choose Window > Workspaces > Graphics.
14. Choose Window > Workspaces > Reset to Saved Layout to clean it up.
15. In the Essential Graphics panel, click on the Edit tab.
16. Directly under the Edit tab, make sure the text layer (House cleaning…) is selected.

17. Under Align and Transform:

    • Click Vertical Center
    • Click Horizontal Center

18. In the Program Monitor, select all of the text with the Type tool .

19. In the Essential Graphics panel, click the Center text button .

20. Set the font to Effra Regular and 100 size (to the right of the Regular weight menu).

    NOTE: If you don’t have this font, you could complete the Syncing Adobe Fonts exercise at the beginning of the book or choose a different font.

21. In case the text has moved, let’s recenter it. Under Align and Transform:

    • Click Vertical Center
    • Click Horizontal Center
22. Choose the Selection tool .
23. In the Timeline, select the text clip on V2.

24. Copy it.

    Now that we have the text formatted the way we want it, we can paste it for the other clips (and then replace the text). When pasting, the clip will go onto the bottom-most track that’s targeted (which is indicated by the V1, V2, etc. being highlighted blue).

25. On the left of the Timeline, make sure V2 is targeted (highlighted blue). If it’s not blue, click on V2 to turn it blue.
26. If any of the other video tracks (V1, V3, or V4) are targeted (highlighted blue), click on their name (V1, V3, or V4) to toggle the blue off.
27. Move the playhead to 6;21.

28. Paste the text clip. (If only V2 was targeted, it should paste correctly onto V2.)

29. Extend the text clip so it matches the 3 clips below.

30. We need to change the text. so return to the textOnscreen.rtf file.

31. Copy the next group of 3 lines beginning with Furniture assembly.

32. Switch back to Premiere and choose the Type tool .

33. Move the playhead to around 7;02 so that you can see the text.

34. Select the text and paste in the new text.

35. This was good practice for working with text, but we’re going to replace this static text with animations from After Effects. So we won’t make you create the third section of text.

36. Play through from the beginning. The text is currently static, and doesn’t come in line by line like we want it to. We’ll be using After Effects to animate this text.

37. Switch back to the Editing workspace.

Dynamically Linking to After Effects

Premiere has some animation capabilities, but for anything more complex After Effects is the animation tool of choice. We won’t be showing you how to animate in After Effects, but we will show you how to add those animations to your Premiere project. So whether you or someone else creates the After Effects animations, you’ll be able to add the animations to your Premiere Pro projects.

NOTE: Both applications (Premiere Pro and After Effects) must be the same version in order to dynamically link between them.

1. We’ve already created the After Effects project with several animations for you, so go to File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import After Effects Composition.

2. Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video > AE projects and select HandyPromoGFX.aep.

3. Under Composition on the right, click on 1 Starting Logo.
4. Hold Shift and click on 5 End Logo.
5. Click OK.

6. In the Project panel you should now see 5 After Effects compositions.

   NOTE: Compositions in After Effects are like sequences in Premiere.

7. At the beginning of Premiere’s Timeline, on V3 find the first handy-logo.jpg clip. Remember that in the final video, this clip has a rotation animation. Creating this was easier in After Effects so we’ll use the animation from there.
8. In the Project panel click once on 1 Starting Logo so it’s the only one selected.
9. Drag 1 Starting Logo onto the first handy-logo.jpg on V3, which should replace it.
10. Play through this first part, to see the logo now rotates!
11. Let’s do this 2 more times.
12. From the Project panel, drag 2 House cleaning onto the first text clip (House cleaning) on V2 to replace it.
13. From the Project panel, drag 3 Furniture assembly onto the second text clip (Furniture assembly) on V2 to replace it.

14. Play from the beginning through the first animated text. Now each line animates in.

    NOTE: You may see a yellow or red line above the Timeline, which means it could having trouble playing in real time. If your playback quality is poor, go to Sequence > Render In to Out.

15. That’s enough to get the point of how this works. We’re not going to make you do the other 2 parts unless you’re working quickly and really want to. If you do, here’s a summary of what you’d do:

    • Place 4 Drippy pipes on V2 starting at 12;06. (There’s no text there, so you’re not replacing anything, you’re merely adding it into an empty space in the Timeline).
    • Replace the ending logo V3 with 5 End Logo.

16. Do a File > Save.

    NOTE: Updating the After Effects project you imported will update this Premiere project! Moving, renaming, or deleting the After Effects project would mean you’ll lose the graphics that Premiere is referencing. Premiere treats the After Effects project as a clip. Similar to how if you move or delete a video or audio clip, the After Effects project clip will go offline and be lost.

Adding a Drop Shadow Effect

One nice thing about linking between After Effects and Premiere, is that we can add effects to a linked comp clip in Premiere. The text is hard to read over the “house painting” clip, so we’ll add a drop shadow here in Premiere to make the text pop.

1. Move the playhead to where we can see all 3 lines of text at 5;09.

2. Select the text clip in V2.

3. Open the Effects panel (Window > Effects).

4. Type drop shadow in the search field.

5. From the filtered results, drag the Drop Shadow effect onto the text clip.

6. In Effect Controls, increase the Softness to 30.

7. Now we can see our text better against the clip. To keep the text visually consistent throughout the promo, let’s add a drop-shadow to the other text clips using a shortcut. With the text clip at 5;09 currently selected, go to Edit > Copy.

8. Click the 2nd text clip to select it.
9. If you brought in the 3rd text animation from After Effects, hold Shift and click on the 3rd text clip.
10. Go to Edit > Paste Attributes.
11. Check ON both Effects and Drop Shadow, and un-check all the others.

12. Click OK.

Saving Frequently Used Export Settings as a Template

We want this video to be a perfect loop, which means the first and last frame must be exactly the same.

1. It’s time to export so let’s set our in and out points. Move the playhead to 19;11.

2. Hit the o key.

3. Move the playhead to the very beginning of the Timeline and hit the i key.

4. File > Save the project.

5. Go to File > Export > Media.

6. Under Export Settings, set the Format to H.264.

7. Set the Preset to Match Source - High bitrate.

8. Next to Output Name, click on the blue name.

9. Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video > Exports.

10. Set the name to HandyPromo-v1.mp4, and click Save.

11. Scroll down and below Bitrate Settings, set Bitrate Encoding to VBR, 2 pass.

12. At the bottom of the window, check on Use Maximum Render Quality.

    Creating an H.264 Preset

    1. After adjusting the settings outlined above, go the right of the Preset menu, click on the Save Preset button .
    2. In the Choose Name window, set the name to yourname-H264 and click OK.

    You’ll be able to use this Preset for many web-resolution exports you may need to do in the future, including many in this book: simply click on the Preset menu and the settings you created will be visible at the top.

    

13. Click Export. This will export a nicely sized file ready to post on social media.

14. After the export finishes, feel free to go into Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Handy GFX Video > Exports and check out the finished video.